The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory and permanently prohibited slavery in that region.

• A. The Treaty of Paris 1783
• B. Land Ordinance of 1785
• C. Proclamation of 1763
• D. Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Answer: (D)

How the United States organized western lands and restricted slavery in new territories is what this item focuses on. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created the Northwest Territory and laid out how it would be governed as it moved toward statehood, including a path to rule for new states on equal footing with existing ones. Importantly, it prohibited slavery in that territory, a ban that applied there permanently and set a precedent for how new western lands could be settled and admitted to statehood without expanding slavery into those areas.

The other events don’t address this territorial policy. The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the war and defined boundaries but didn’t create a framework for governing a western territory or ban slavery there. The Land Ordinance of 1785 dealt with surveying and selling land, not slavery restrictions. The Proclamation of 1763 barred colonial settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains, but it was issued by Britain before independence and does not pertain to the organized governance of U.S. western territories after the Revolution.